One of the many beautiful things about vegan living is that it is near to impossible to do it well all by oneself. In a time when fast food and 24-hour warehouse grocery stores have made it increasingly easy to alienate ourselves from the great social goods of cooking and eating together, knowing those who produce our food, and understanding the implications of our choices for other human beings, non-human animals, and the environment, the vegan lifestyle is a daily reminder of the profound and mysterious ways in which each and every one of us is always already connected to every other.

It is in this spirit that we offer ExtraVEGANza! as an opportunity to celebrate a POSITIVE and INCLUSIVE vision of veganism that abandons the shame and blame game in favor of promoting the exciting opportunities and the many joys that accompany the challenges of compassionate living. We hope that there is something for everyone in this blog. To fellow vegans, we offer an expanded circle of contacts and a community of encouragement and support that will make the prospect of vegan living in Grand Rapids that much more exciting. To compassionate omnivores, slow foodies, and agrarians, we offer solidarity in the struggle to model more constructive alternatives to the cruelty, wastefulness, and alienation perpetuated by factory agribusiness. To interested newcomers, we offer experience, expertise, and information that might help to mitigate the sense of malaise that often accompanies the epiphany of "animal consciousness". To those with whom we may initially seem to have less in common, we offer a non-threatening, non-judgmental forum in which to discuss our differences and attempt to find common ground. To everyone, we offer news and reviews of books, media, art, and culture that will invigorate your desire to make a positive difference in the world, as well as recipes and pictures that will make you forget (at least momentarily) that there's anything beyond the pleasure of GOOD EATING! Our sincere hope is that ExtraVEGANza! will be a place where vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike can work together on the worthy task of cultivating a more compassionate community.

Many of you have noticed that we're still under construction. Though we're off to a reasonably good start, there is much we hope to accomplish in the next several weeks. Among the attactions we plan to add are a navigation tool at the top that will allow you to access various categories of posts without having to dig through the archives (categories will include books, recipes, restaurants, arts and culture, alternative household and hygeine products, philosophical arguments, activism strategies, and anything else that emerges as an area of concern as our conversations progress). In addition, we hope to be able to post occasional podcasts of interviews with interesting folks whose concerns are tangent to ours, be they activists, artists, chefs, farmers, philosophers, retailers, or bloggers. Finally, we hope to bring you some great T-shirt designs so that you can wear your ExtraVEGANza! pride on your sleeve. In short, we're aiming to be a reasonably broad-minded bunch, which is why we hope you'll see the good-natured irony in the limited edition inaugural tee that is currently in the works: "FUNDAMENTALIST VEGANGELICAL". Stay tuned for details.

Welcome to ExtraVEGANza! Let us know what you'd like to see, and we'll do our very best to make it happen for you. All we ask in return is your help in making this blog a lively but respectful environment where as many people as possible will feel embraced and included.